LANSING - A man who died in a house fire early Wednesday has been identified as Gerald Price.

Price, 72, was a U.S. Air Force veteran who had served in an honor guard for President John F. Kennedy, Lansing officials said in a news release late Friday afternoon.

He was found dead inside a house in the 900 block of Johnson Avenue after it caught fire on Wednesday morning, fire officials said

Heavy flames were coming from the structure when firefighters arrived around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, Lansing Fire Department spokesman Steve Mazurek said. Firefighters were forced to attack the blaze from outside for a while before making entry, he said.

"Apparently there was a lot of debris in the house," Mazurek said.

Price died from smoke inhalation, said Michael Tobin, Lansing's emergency management director. Officials have released no other information about the fire investigation.

Officials had some difficulty locating Price's family, and that delayed the release of his name, Tobin said.

Family members indicated that Price served in the Honor Guard for Kennedy in Washington, D.C. after the president was assassinated in 1963, Tobin said.

Contact Ken Palmer at (517) 377-1032 or kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.